Car sales statistics for the minicar segment in the US, updated every quarter.

Segments shrinks by a fifth and ends 2017 at the bottom of the mainstream heap

Sales in the US minicar segment fell by 9.6% to 22,199 in the fourth quarter of 2017. This makes it the third quarter in a row that sales in the segment have declined, although the rate of decline was considerably slower than in either Q2 or Q3, when the segment shrunk by 43% and 27%, respectively. Overall, the segment shrunk by 20.0% in 2017, the [Read more…]

After briefly returning to growth in the first quarter of 2017, the minicar segment in the United States fell back into the red in the second quarter of this year, and firmly remained there in the third quarter, even if the 36% fall in sales in Q3 was slightly less bad than the 47% drop recorded in Q2. All in all, sales in the minicar segment were only 63,023 over the first three quarters of 2017, down from 90,095 in 2016, which is roughly how many Toyota RAV4s are sold in a month and a half!

Minicar segment collapsed in the second quarter of 2017, with only Mitsubishi Mirage recording YTD sales gains

After briefly returning to growth in the first quarter of 2017, the Minicar segment in the United States fell back into the red in the second quarter of this year. And what a fall it was – sales fell by almost a half compared to Q2’16, to only 19,019 units, the largest fall from among all segments by a wide margin.

The Minicar segment in the United States has returned to growth in 2017 after an abysmal 2016 when sales dipped with double digits. In the first quarter of 2017, sales of North America’s smallest vehicles grew by 8.5% to 27,388 units. Fueling this increased demand were the new generation Chevrolet Spark and the facelift of the Mitsubishi Mirage, which have now taken over the first two spots of the segment podium, knocking the former leader Mini Cooper down to third. The Fiat 500 appears to have hit rock bottom and slightly recovers this year

The Minicar segment in the United States has been hurt badly by the low gasoline prices in 2016, with sales down 11.0%, the worst fall from all the segments. However, the situation improved markedly for the segment in Q4, when it was the only segment to substantial growth (5.6 percent), driven mainly by substantial sales growth for models: Chevrolet Spark and Mitsubishi Mirage.

The minicar segment in the United States is hurt badly by the low gasoline prices, with sales down 21.6% in the first three quarters of 2016, with not a single model improving on last year. Now that we have more detailed data for the Mini brand, we can better compare the models in this segment, as for example the Mini Clubman station wagon really can’t be called a minicar anymore, let alone that it would be cross-shopped with the Chevrolet Spark. The Mini data in this table consist of the Hardtop 2-door and 4-door and the Convertible. Sales of those three models combined showed a drop of 34% compared to the first three quarters of 2015, which means that there’s a new segment leader: the Chevrolet Spark.

2016 continues being a bad year for he Minicar segment, with a further drop in sales in the second quarter of 10 percent relative to Q2 2015, bringing the total fall for the year to 18 percent; only the Premium Mid-sized segment shrank more in 2016 so far. What’s more, this was despite the new Chevy Spark and facelifted Mitsubishi Mirage hitting the market this quarter. It seems that this segment is destined to shrink until gas prices rise meaningfully, as American customers buy cars from this sector only because of the value proposition they represent, rather than because they inherently value the advantage of their small size.

What a difference a year makes! 2015 started off very well for the Minicar segment, with a 19% growth recorded in Q1, but 2016 could not be more different: sales were 28% lower in Q1 2016 than a year prior, the biggest fall from among all segments! The reason for this is very clear: continuing low gas prices encourages people to buy larger, less fuel-efficient cars. With only one new car (Chevy Spark) and one facelifted car (Mitsubishi Mirage) hitting the market this year, it’s hard to see how things could get better anytime soon for the struggling segment.

2015 started off very well for the Minicar segment, with a 19% growth recorded in Q1, but as the year went on got progressively worse and worse, culminating in the segment shrinking by 30% in Q4. The main reason for this is the falling price of gas that encourages people to buy larger, less fuel-efficient cars – a theme that we’ll see in many other segments as well. This trend is so strong in the US market right now that it drags down even the newest, most attractive cars (Mini Cooper), or ones that started the year as star performers (Mitsubishi Mirage).

The Minicar segment could not maintain its growth from the first half of the year, and shrank by 9% in the third quarter of 2015 compared to the same period of 2014. This means that so far this year the segment has only grown by 3%, behind the overall sales growth of 5% , and may yet end up shrinking overall by the time 2015 is over. While at least some of this reversal is due to the continuing low gas prices which promote purchases of large cars, one has the feeling that it is also due to the cars available being a rather uninspiring and aging bunch…